


Dinner Party

by glim



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dinner, Domestic, Engagement, F/F, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-14
Updated: 2011-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-16 19:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/168576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glim/pseuds/glim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Merlin have a dinner party and Arthur attempts not to fret over the event that occasions it. (Set in the modern au of <i>folioed.</i>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dinner Party

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [folioed](https://archiveofourown.org/works/113961) by [glim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glim/pseuds/glim). 



There were two things that Arthur knew he did well: writing and cooking. The first he did for a living - he did it to _keep_ living - and the second he did simply because he enjoyed it. He liked to tell Merlin that he had taken up cooking because he'd been so worried that his rail-thin boyfriend would have faded into nothingness if Arthur hadn't fed him, but both he and Merlin knew that Merlin had never been quite that thin and that he had done a decent job of feeding himself before Arthur had starting doing so.

So, yes, Arthur liked feeding Merlin, but he also liked how cooking was easier than writing, how the results were slightly more predictable, and how the pleasure of mixing different ingredients was akin to the pleasure of writing verse.

It could be more soothing than writing, too, Arthur noted, and peered into the oven to check on the roasting vegetables. He'd planned the vegetables, couscous, and salmon for dinner, an apple torte for pudding, and had persuaded Merlin to stop flittering about trying to clean the kitchen by sending him out for an extra bottle of wine.

Not that he needed to be soothed. It was just dinner. Well, dinner party. But a party only slightly more formal than their usual dinner parties, so, really, it shouldn't be awkward. And it wouldn't be awkward, Arthur decided. He told himself that it couldn't be, because although things were going to change, this was the good sort of change, the sort he'd been hoping would happen for a while now.

Wiping his hands on a tea towel, Arthur leaned against the counter to wait for the vegetables to finish. They would have salad, too, and he'd have to remind Merlin to put that on the table as soon as he arrived home.

Which, given the rising sound of voices and footsteps outside their flat, would be any second now. Arthur waited, listened to the flurry of voices and greetings, and his heart skipped in his chest when he heard Merlin laugh. It has always been like that for Arthur; his breath has always caught short every now and then at the sound of his partner's voice and his heart has always done that odd skipping thing when Merlin laughed, loud and unexpected. The sensation was one he'd been attempting to put into words for years now, even since he'd met Merlin, ever since he'd seen him curled into a seat at the back of a cafe, his slim fingers wrapped around a coffee cup, his eyes as wary and beautiful as the early winter morning.

Arthur smiled to himself, then smiled again, more broadly, when he looked up to see that it wasn't Merlin standing in the doorway to the kitchen holding a bottle of wine, but Morgana.

"There you are. We were wondering if you were still hiding in here."

"I'm not hiding. I'm cooking."

"Mm. I know. It smells good." Morgana gave him a look, one that reminded him she's known him too well for too long, and placed the wine on the counter. "You look nervous. You can't possibly be nervous about dinner."

"I'm not. Nervous. Or... anything. There." He nodded at the drawer next to the one through which Morgana had already started to rummage. "Corkscrew."

"Ah, thank you. We brought a bottle, too, in case you wanted something with dessert. Though, now I'm thinking we ought to have brought something to go with the first course."

"I'm not nervous."

"Arthur..." Morgana reached over to place a hand on his arm. "What are you even worried about?"

"Did you do the wine - oh. Is this a … private family sort of moment?" Gwen frowned after peeking into the kitchen, then walked into the room when Arthur shook Morgana's hand off his arm. "Oh, is Arthur making a fuss? I'm sure everything's really nice."

"I'm not making a fuss. And I'm not worrying over anything," he said and gave Morgana a pointed look. She gave him another one of her patented knowing looks and although Arthur could pretend to be annoyed, the gesture was too familiar for him to not realize how happy and how _grateful_ he was that she'd come home and stayed home after being gone for five years.

"When he says he's not fussing, he's fussing. Did anyone actually open the wine?" Merlin squeezed in next to Gwen and eagerly craned his neck to search for the wine. Or a glass. Or, well, knowing Merlin, he was ready to start pouring drinks for everyone and was looking for all the glasses and both bottles of wine.

"You do realize our kitchen's not big enough for this many people? And you all look ridiculous hovering in the doorway like that." Arthur crossed his arms over his chest, told himself he needed to, lest the unfolding warmth inside him show all over his face.

Merlin laughed and Arthur's heart skipped before he could catch himself, and he just shook his head and motioned for Merlin to come stand next to him. And Merlin did, save that instead of standing next to Arthur, he pressed in quite close, slid his arms around Arthur's waist, and rested his head on Arthur's shoulder.

"You actually don't need to fuss or anything." Merlin turned to press a kiss to Arthur's ear, then buried his face in Arthur's neck for a second. "I might've accidentally told Gwen and Morgana on the way in. I couldn't help it. M'excited," he murmured into Arthur's neck.

"You're impossible. Right, open the wine. We're getting married," he said, and the words felt so real, so perfect in his mouth that he turned to Merlin and gazed at him for a moment. "We're actually getting married."

Merlin tightened his arms around Arthur and smiled his stupid brilliant smile and the world felt very warm and very small and very wonderful inside their kitchen.


End file.
